The Social Emotional Learning Self-Reflection App
MySEL is an iOS App that is designed to assess educator skills in supporting children’s social and emotional learning. This tool, based on the Pyramid Model, was designed to help educators better understand all the different components that make up social and emotional learning, assess the fidelity of the use of these skills and provide reflection opportunities as to where support might be most needed. The overarching goal here is to prevent challenging behaviors in the classroom and to help educators be better equipped with effective strategies when challenges do occur/arise.
- Two age group options (Toddler and Preschool)
- Information Icons that provide examples for most of the skills
- Ease of use (users can come and go from the app and data is saved)
- A PD certificate is provided upon completion that can be printed out or emailed.
There are two data reporting options through MySEL.
Individual - Individual users can request a copy of their reports (for a fee) that can be directly emailed to them. Although users can always see and change their selections in the app, a report is often more desirable for looking at the results in a big picture.
Aggregate - if Directors choose to have their whole program complete the self-assessment, they can obtain aggregate reports (for a fee) for each classroom upon completion as long as there are at least 3 participants.
Contact us at cdenis@mysel.org for more information on reports.
MySEL has created targeted trainings reflective of the skills in the APP. Once your data is collected, a recommendation can be made as to the most targeted PD.
Contact MySEL @ cdenis@mysel.org for workshop descriptions, price/group options and presenter availability.
The Pyramid Model has supported social and emotional development in early childhood classrooms for over 20 years. Through evidence-based research, innovative techniques, and global reach, the Pyramid Model empowers children from birth to 5 years to succeed in school and life. The inventory of practice is one Pyramid Model tool that evaluates practices within the social and emotional curriculum and daily care of children.
To learn more about the Pyramid Model visit https://www.pyramidmodel.org/
While MySEL will provide aggregate data to your programs’ administration team after everyone completes the app, your individual data will only be shared with you. Aggregate data means data points representing a group average instead of information from an individual. There must be at least three individuals in a group to provide this aggregate data. Included in your classroom data would be all educators who spend time in your classroom, including floats, support staff and leadership. This data is valuable as it will be used to help your leadership best determine what areas specifically to concentrate on as they develop PD opportunities. Being able to target specific areas around preventing challenging behaviors as well as how to handle the behaviors in the most effective way when they do arise. It’s our hope that your reflections are the most effective way to determine those specific strategies that you are looking for. See our privacy policy here.
Benefits to Educators:
- Helps educators have a better idea of what skills they should be using to support SEL. Just completing the app increases awareness of important supports educators should be offering to children.
- Clarity of where to focus their professional development for specific skill development.
- Completing the App becomes an entry point for teachers to the Pyramid Model or a refresh to those who are familiar with the framework but haven’t been using it.
- Teachers can go back and update their proficiency ratings to see their growth.
Benefits to Directors and Administrators:
- Aggregate data provides guidance on professional development plans for classrooms/whole programs.
- Aggregate data provides guidance on pedagogical goal setting for classrooms and the center as a whole.
- Allows the administration to see that educators’ skill proficiency is in alignment with the philosophy of the program.
- Aggregate reports provide an option to for data-driven decision-making.
Benefits to Early Childhood Coaches:
- Knowing where educators are in their understanding and use of social and emotional supports for children (through the MySEL reports).
- Provides prompts for reflection/discussion during debriefs.
- Allows them to see how challenging behaviors are viewed as a team process (including families).
- Provides a self-directed option while classrooms wait for their turn in a coaching cycle.
- Gives them a direction for where to target goals that are developed with educators.
Benefits to Early Childhood Instructors, Faculty, Students:
- The App provides baseline data on where students are coming into the class in their understanding of SEL.
- For students, it gives them a glimpse of what skills they will be learning about as well as an ideal introduction to the Pyramid Model.
- At the end of the term, students repeat the assessment and are able to compare before and after results to show their growth in understanding.
Given that your individual data will not be shared with anyone but you, you are encouraged to be as honest and accurate about your responses as possible. While just participating in the APP itself helps bring awareness to skills that should be supported in the classroom, it will also provide valuable data to help your administration decide how to support you in very targeted ways.
The SEL umbrella is big! Being able to target areas that educators need support, provides an efficient way to prevent and handle challenging behaviors in the classroom.
We encourage you to spend a few minutes reflecting on these skills to provide the most accurate response. If you are unsure which selection to make, err on the less frequent side as that will help shed light on an area that might be considered for more support.